Venezuela and French officials believed that a terrorist group had planted a bomb on the aircraft and planned on detonating it while the flight was in midair.

The aircraft was searched, with the results not yet released. Officials believe it was a credible enough threat to reschedule the flight.

"We don't want to speculate on the motives because the information comes directly from French intelligence services," Venezuelan Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres told the media.

"We only learned reading Twitter that it could've been a bomb," said passenger Jesus Arandia, a 52-year-old university professor. The United States believes that terror groups have been able to make inroads in Venezuela since Venezuela stopped cooperating with the United States on anti-terrorism operations.